The case of In re: Beth V. New York State Office of Children & Family Services (OCFS) involved a decision by the New York State Workers Compensation Board that settlement proceeds from an employment lawsuit against OCFS should offset any Comp payments based on the same set of facts. What’s significant about this case was how the employer mishandled an allegation of sexual harassment. To make a long story short, Beth, an OCFS youth division aide, was working in the kitchen, where M, a male resident, was assigned under a facility work program. One day, Beth confiscated a notebook that M had brought with him to the kitchen, apparently because he had told her he was writing suggestive notes about her and had made crude, sexually explicit gestures. She gave the notebook to the youth division aide on duty. When M discovered this, he threw a fit.
After the incident, Beth told various supervisors and fellow employees that she felt unsafe, uncomfortable, and feared physical and sexual harm from M. A few days later, while she was logging out from work, he accosted her from behind, choked, punched, and raped her at knifepoint. M then forced her to turn over her keys to her Jeep and abducted her from the camp. When he stopped to make a call at a pay phone, Beth escaped and reported the crime to the police. She filed a lawsuit against OCFS and eventually settled for $646,000, of which she ended up with $430,000 – the amount that the Workers Comp carrier claimed it had a right to offset.
I can tell you that from my years of trial experience that if OCFS were a private employer, the punitive damages would have been in the millions. The bottom line: Take all claims of sexual harassment seriously! During my career, I represented three women in Beth’s position – and all of these cases were ugly. In two of them, a decent investigation and follow-up by the employer could have prevented the horrible outcome.
